The Death Of An Actor

Paul Walker is an actor and he is dead. This is terrible for his family and my sincerest condolences go out to them. Facebook, Twitter & all forms of modern micro-blogging are a-glow with the world coming together to share their pain. Yesterday, 20,864 people died of starvation. Today 20,864 are dying of starvation. Tomorrow 20,864 will die of starvation.

Where is the public outcry of sorrow for these people who are dying every day from something that the world has the ability to prevent? Why are we so concerned about this actor who had more money than all of us combined and led a lifestyle the likes of that which most of us will never know? This man had the ability to live a very fulfilling life and while still among the living was able to enjoy the fruits of a labor which (I assume) he worked hard for. With a serious assumption on my part I would say that this man lived a great life before it was cut short.

The fact is that we didn’t personally know Paul Walker, and yet he is more important to us than the 20,864 people who die every day from something we could be preventing.

I would say that I’m sure Mr. Walker was a very nice person (and all the other pleasantries that go along with trying to respect someone’s life while responding to their death) but the fact is that I have no idea who he is, what he was like or what he stood for… and I bet most of you don’t either.

With a sincere respect for the pain that comes with the loss of a family member that Mr. Walker’s actual friends and family are dealing with right now, I say to the rest of the world; while you’re posting about the pain of loss for a person you have never known in life other than roles they have played, know that “Every year, 1.5 million people die from hunger, including 16,000 children. That’s one child every five seconds.” (source: http://www.bread.org/hunger/global/)

It took me 15 minutes to write and edit this post. 180 children died of starvation in that time. How many have died in the time it took you to read it? Maybe we should be putting our resources somewhere that matters.